Re: Simple Q&A D&D 3.5 (by RAW) XXI

Originally Posted by willpell

[b]045 Dispute[b] I'm inclined to dispute this call, since if two-handed weapons still allow you to make an unarmed strike, nearly every melee character would go for this option (an extra free attack, even for nonlethal and at AoO risk, is a pretty major deal), and so the setting would be full of guys running around throwing a kick or headbutt or butt-slam in after every single greatsword chop. That it's unrealistic and goofy doesn't matter for this thread's purposes, but I also suspect that it's very strongly against RAI and might well be prohibited by RAW in some less than obvious fashion. Isn't there anything in core or the Rules Compendium clarifying you can's toss other attacks in along with a THW attack unless you have more-than-human anatomy?

045 cont. Nothing forbids it. From the SRD

Originally Posted by SRD

Unarmed Attacks
Striking for damage with punches, kicks, and head butts is much like attacking with a melee weapon.

Two Weapon Fighting
If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. You suffer a -6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a -10 penalty to the attack with your off hand when you fight this way. You can reduce these penalties in two ways:

Thus unarmed strikes are permitted as a secondary attack for a character, even armed with a two-handed weapon, albeit the primary melee attack is at -4, and the unarmed strike is at -8. With the two-weapon fighting feat, these penalties are reduced to -2 primary and -2 unarmed strike. This provokes an attack of opportunity unless the character has or benefits from the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. Whether or not a character "would" or "should" do this is outside the scope of this thread.

Last edited by mattie_p; 2012-05-24 at 10:15 AM.

Chairman of Zinc Saucier. Currently judging made from scratch Flayerspawn Psychics. It is just like Iron Chef but comes with double the prize money.

Originally Posted by Psyren

So now you're claiming that spellcasting "lacks a clear, supernatural element?" Being supernatural is literally the only point of magic.